The Tremblingness of Youths

This chapter describes the student organizations where fieldwork was conducted and the data collection methods used, and introduces some of the student activists whose stories recur throughout the book. Dominant historical narratives portray such youths as key agents of Indonesian nationalism, which is why young people in Indonesia have long been permitted to feel a sense of tremblingness, or that quivering, can’t-hold-back, impatient desire to change their society and nation. This enduring youthful capacity for tremblingness propels contemporary acts of religious improvisation.